ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the origins of the concept of race during the Enlightenment. The meanings given to race during the Middle Ages and the manner in which that meaning changed during the 17th and 18th centuries is analyzed. The first use of the word race to categorize people based on ocular physical features and geography by Francois Bernier is considered. The evolution of racialized categories is then traced from Carl Linnaeus to Comte de Buffon and Friedrich Blumenbach. This analysis also considers the way in which the “White race” was given higher status than all other racialized groups.
